Media Player Roundup

With so many media formats from audio to video, which media player do you need?  Many companies are now designing their media players with added functionality from standard mp3 playback to audio CD burning.  The review consist of five media players: Windows Media Player 8, RealOne Player, QuickTime 5, Music Match 7 and Winamp 2.78.  The first three players have various functions whereas Music Match and Winamp are audio players.

Windows Media Player 8
Bundled with Windows XP, Windows Media Player 8 (WMP 8) is a definitely in a league of its own.  WMP 8 offers a lot features: mp3 playback, video playback, internet audio and video streaming, audio CD creation,  and  internet radio.  The new media player is a change from WMP 7 - which is plagued by problems on some computers.  The audio features in WMP 8 allow you to adjust a variety of settings; my most favorite feature is the SRS WOW Effect which helps increase bass and quality of the audio played.  Internet audio and video streaming quality is exceptionally good, which depends on your Internet connection.  As for audio CD creation, WMP 8 does the job but that's about it; there are no advanced CD mastering features. Audio CD extraction is limited with Microsoft's own format Windows Media Audio (you can have mp3 ripping through a registry hack or through media packs).  WMP 8 can not play DVD movies out of the box, you will need to purchase and download media packs.  Overall, WMP 8 offers a clean interface, with a good set of features.

RealOne Player
With WMP 7 and 8, Real decided to create a new integrated media player that will directly compete with Microsoft.  The RealOne Player has a new interface which integrates its various features.  RealOne Player can be downloaded for free (just a little hard to find on www.real.com site) or you can purchase RealOne Player with exclusive content.  Like previous versions, RealOne can playback a variety of formats including mp3.  One disappointment was the lack of DSP like add-ons similar to that of WMP 8's SRS WOW effects.  However, you can pay for add-ons to do this.  Real Video internet streams have improved dramatically and is on par with Windows Media Video.  RealOne seems to buffer content slightly faster than previous Real Player versions.  One thing that shines in the RealOne Player is content.  If you decide to purchase RealOne, then you will have access to exclusive content - meaning better video quality streams and access to variety of streams that you would not normally have access to in the free version.  RealOne has a promising future with its new look and integration of the various features.

QuickTime 5
Apple's latest QuickTime player embodies a clean interface compared to QuickTime 4.  QuickTime 5 does not offer as much features as WMP or RealOne but gets the job done with its own QuickTime formats.  QuickTime offers basic mp3 playback.  One annoyance with QuickTime is with the free player that you can download at Apple's web site.  If you do not purchase QuickTime Pro Edition, then the QuickTime player will occasionally pop up messages reminding you of the QuickTime Pro Edition.  Internet video streams are somewhat alright in quality compared to RealOne and WMP.  QuickTime is an essential player to play QuickTime files, however other than playing these files, there is no clear advantage over its competitors.

Music Match Jukebox 7
With it's skinable interface, Music Match Jukebox 7 can have a variety of interfaces depending on the user's preferences.  Jukebox is intended for audio playback and audio CD creation.  Version 7 can playback a variety of media types from CD audio to mp3s.  Jukebox 7 has an excellent radio selection with a wide range of categories.  The player does not come with any DSP like plug-ins, however you can purchase such add-ons.  Jukebox 7's audio playback is good but not exceptional, though, the equalizer adjustments can help.  Music Match 7 Jukebox Basic can be downloaded for free or you can purchase for $19.99 US.  If you do purchase Jukebox 7, then you will have some added features such as audio ripping from CDs, faster CD creation etc.  Radio content remains the same for Basic and Jukebox 7.  If you want to have higher quality radio, then you will have to subscribe to its RadioMX service at a price.  Jukebox 7 with the RadioMX service can be costly compared to the other players such as Winamp and the Shoutcast network.

Winamp 2.78
As one of the eldest media players, Winamp 2.78 is a solid performer and great value (it's free!).  Winamp's web site (www.winamp.com) has an impressive array of skins and plug-ins.  Winamp can not playback video but only audio content with a good range of supported media files.  Audio playback is again good and clean. Some users may find that the Winamp player is too small, while other find it a perfect size (it can be even reduced to a title bar) - it's really a user preference.  Winamp can also convert mp3 files to wave files, however this process is not as obvious.  Winamp also has an impressive radio/internet stream content provided by users at Shoutcast network.